Taken by BlackBerry Storm

Research In Motion's(RIMM Quote) BlackBerry Storm was worth waiting for. It is a terrific device.

No, it is not an Apple(AAPL Quote) iPhone. On the other hand, the iPhone is no Storm! I've been testing a Storm here and in Europe and can report that the phone is the most revolutionary BlackBerry ever.

Verizon's(VZ Quote) Storm is the first touch-screen BlackBerry. After all these years of thumb wheels and roller balls, this is the first BlackBerry that needs you to physically touch the screen to navigate the features.

The Storm's official designation is the BlackBerry 9530. It measures 4.4 by 2.4 by 0.55 inches and weighs 5.4 ounces. It sports 128KB of flash memory, 1GB of internal memory and an 8GB micro-SD memory card. The 1400 mAh, removable battery is billed as lasting for 5.5 hours of talk time and 15 days of stand-by. That says nothing about how long the battery really lasts though -- 12 hours of heavy use, up to two days of light use.

There's a 3.2 megapixel camera (stills and video), stereo Bluetooth, polyphonic ringtones and a music player that handles MP3, AAC and WMA files. There is also GPS: a stand-alone and assisted GPS system is pre-loaded into the Storm. On the other hand, there is no Wi-Fi inside. According to the Verizon Web site, there are no Verizon phones that come with Wi-Fi. They want you to use their 3G network instead.

The amazing-quality TFT touch screen measures 480 by 360 pixels. The screen also moves when you touch it. Unlike the iPhone or any other smartphone or tablet computer you've probably tried, the Storm's screen actually moves when you press it. The movement/sensation is pretty amazing when you first try it. After a short time, the idea of lightly tapping the screen to "move the cursor" to where you want it and then pressing in the screen to open the item becomes second nature.

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